Our pick of the year’s 10 best Korean drama series to date
True crime, historical epic, horror, romance and comedy are among the genres covered by stand-out shows, and 2022 is only halfway through
We’re only halfway through it, but 2022 has already gifted us an embarrassment of K-drama riches.
Superlative slice-of-life dramas, sweeping historical epics and mirthful romcoms are just some of the stand-outs that have shared Korean television and streaming schedules.
We rank the best Korean dramas of the first half of 2022, from good to great.
10. Woori the Virgin
In this bubbly remake of the US series Jane the Virgin, which both pokes fun at and embraces soap opera conventions, Lim Soo-hyang plays a 30-yearold virgin who prepares for her very own immaculate conception when she is mistakenly artificially inseminated.
Though not as transgressive as it appeared to be early on, the show provided a lively mix of heady melodrama and fast-paced comedy.
9. Link: Eat, Love, Kill
Link: Eat, Love, Kill has only just started, but with such an iridescent and charming opening, this darkly humorous fantasy-romcom-thriller-drama mash-up deserves a spot on our list.
Delectable meals and concealed corpses share fridge space in a tale that carefully balances an array of tones. Yeo Jin-goo, fresh from Beyond Evil, plays a sensitive top chef and Moon Ga-young, recently in True Beauty, a fizzy jobseeker.
Their characters share chemistry and an unusual fantastical bond in what promises to be a delightful K-drama confection.
8. Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area
Part 1 of Netflix’s Korean spin on its Spanish hit Money Heist does not depart very much from the original story, beyond giving it a unique geopolitical spin, but with such a winning formula and dynamic cast, who cares? This is a very slick and enjoyable update.
Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Ji-hoon and Park Hae-soo are among the stand-out performers in this tense and twisty heist action and negotiation thriller. Part 2 of this first season is already in production and should grace our screens before long.
7. Through the Darkness
Kim Nam-gil suavely brings a fascinating real-life figure to the screen in this adaptation of a true-crime chronicle written by South Korea’s first criminal profiler.
Much like David Fincher’s Mindhunter, the story finds a gifted behavioural investigator interviewing some shockingly violent criminals to find out what makes them tick and how to catch others like them.
The show touches on a number of notable criminal cases that have wracked Korean society over the past two decades.
6. Thirty-Nine
Crash Landing on You’s Son Ye-jin returned to screens this year alongside Jeon Mi-do of Hospital Playlist and Kim Ji-hyun in this Sex and the Cityesque tale of three lifelong friends living their city lives as they approach the big 4-0.
A terminal illness and a series of burgeoning romantic connections give depth and heart to this touching and engaging rumination on life and female friendship.
5. Juvenile Justice
Screen doyen Kim Hye-soo makes her Netflix debut in grand fashion as a stern judge who presides over a juvenile court and becomes the focus of national attention when several high-high-profile cases appear on her docket.
Kim is in her element as she carries this involving tale that binds together several issues affecting Korean society today in a slick and affecting package.
4. Pachinko
Apple TV+’s sweeping epic brought Min Jin Lee’s acclaimed bestseller about Korean immigrants in Japan to a much broader global audience, and garnered some of the best reviews of any show released this year.
Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung, heartthrob Lee Min-ho and terrific newcomer Kim Min-ah bring this powerful multi-generational tale to life, helped by rich, meticulous and evocative staging and a narrative that finds catharsis in the ebbs and flows of time.
With only half the book adapted and given the strong viewer response, a second season is all but assured.
3. Our Blues
Hit writer Noh Hee-kyung assembled the year’s starriest drama cast in Our Blues and each of them delivered in this earthy and heart-warming Jeju-set drama about a gregarious community of merchants, seafood divers and fishmongers.
Rather than mix everything up from the get-go, the story gives each relationship time to grow and breathe in individual episodes, while the rest of the cast buzz around in the background.
Lee Byung-hun and Kim Hye-ja are particular highlights among a sterling cast.
2. Twenty-Five, Twenty-One
Kim Tae-ri is an utter delight as the feisty fencer who comes of age in the kaleidoscopic and thoroughly engaging youth romance Twenty-Five, Twenty-One. She shares wonderful chemistry with co-star Nam Joo-hyuk, who puts in a quieter but no less impressive performance.
Funny, heartfelt and surprisingly thoughtful, the show quickly became a sensation. It engages with history to great effect, the 1997/8 Asian financial crisis adding an emotional layer at the outset, but a ripped-from-the-headlines event adds an awkward note later on.
1. My Liberation Notes
My Mister writer Park Hae-young returned in outstanding fashion this year with the exceptional sliceof-life drama My Liberation Notes.
Son Suk-ku steals the show as the enigmatic Mr Gu, but the whole cast shines in this absorbing and complex tale about the frustrated dreams of a trio of siblings who commute into Seoul from the countryside, and the elusive personal freedom they attempt to achieve.
Layered, textured and frequently triumphant, My Liberation Notes will be a hard show to beat when we sit down to draw up our year-end ranking in six months’ time.